Merger Deal Could Mean Big Changes For Greensboro-Based Bank

Two North Carolina banks are merging to create the largest community bank in the state. The CEO's of Yadkin Bank and Greensboro-based NewBridge Bank announced the more than $450 million dollar deal this week.

The Triad Business Journal's Owen Covington has been following this story. For this week's Business Report, he talks with WFDD's Keri Brown about the impact the merger will have in the Triad.

“What Yadkin Bank was really lacking was a presence in the Triad. With NewBridge, they get a really solid Triad bank, as well as one that has a presence along the coast and in the Wilmington area, so this deal really gives Yadkin that statewide footprint," says Covington.

The emerging bank will have total assets of $7.1 billion, with deposits of $5.2 billion and about $5 billion in loans.

Covington says the bank will be headquartered in Raleigh. He says the impact of the merger will be felt directly in the Triad and that could include the name of a local venue.

”NewBridge was formed in 2007 and it was in that same year that they signed the naming rights agreement with the Greensboro Grasshoppers for the ballpark in downtown to be NewBridge Bank Park. Yadkin's CEO Scott Custer says the bank plans to honor all those commitments that NewBridge had,” says Covington.

“However, Custer didn't say specifically that the ballpark would be changed, but they're going to want their name to be known around the Triad and I would wager that it's going to be named Yadkin Bank Park at the start of next season.”

The deal comes a little more than a year after Elkin-based Yadkin Financial Corp., the holding company of Yadkin Bank, merged with VantageSouth Bancshares, the parent of VantageSouth Bank, to become the largest community bank in the state.

The 15-member board for the bank will include 10 directors from Yadkin and five from NewBridge, with Joe Towell, who headed Yadkin prior to the VantageSouth merger, remaining as chairman.

The merger is expected to be complete by the second quarter of next year.

The Business Journal on 88.5 WFDD is a partnership with the Triad Business Journal.

*Follow Keri Brown on Twitter @kerib_news.